Weekly planning - 3 and 4 year old room

Please click on the links below to view the weekly planning and activities so that you can see what the children are learning in nursery. Photos of the activities are further down this page.

Photos/details of activities:

Last week the children visited the dingle for our seasonal community walk and planted more shrubs, bulbs and plants in our allocated planting space, we are hopeful next time we visit we will see some growth and progress. The caterpillars are sleeping and changing in their cocoons, we have also observed our tadpoles from the pond this week, which have grown huge! We are keen to check them again after half term, to see if any have developed their back legs as part of their life cycle.

 Walk to school week was popular with the children, with many encouraging their parents to scoot, bike ride and take pictures to share with their friends and key workers. We created tally charts and worked out which day the most people walked – Wednesday! Well done to all who joined us and could be part of "Healthy minds and bodies" too, particularly on mental health awareness day Thursday where we all wore green. The children took part in exercise classes, yoga outdoors, music and movement and were encouraged to use deep belly breathing techniques for calm when we are feeling worried or upset, as well as reading a favourite story book.  

 A few children are still inspired by the local artist visit and have been recreating some of her work during the last week. Here you can see the piece, A Marvellous Moon Dance.

 This week the children are looking at growth and change in themselves. We would like children to bring in a shoe box or similar sized container with baby photos, baby grows, clothes, first shoes, or any other baby memorabilia in. This will be shared carefully with their key workers and friends at our circle times. Rest assured we know how precious some of these items may be to you and will ensure they are handled sensitively and safely.  

A reminder of the school trip which is taking place on Wednesday 7^th June to Wolseley Bridge Nature Reserve. Green and purple group are still looking for extra volunteers to support the groups. Please if you are able, speak to your key worker asap!

Last week, we started cultivating a permanent space to start our own vegetable patch! We have had donations of carrot seeds, parsley, lettuce and seed potatoes so far so Thank you, this is a great start. Any other donations are gratefully received 🥔🧄🌽🥒🥬🥕 We are particularly looking for green beans, broccoli and more compost.

 The children were very lucky to explore paint and printing techniques with local artist Kate Windsor last week. Kate specialises in bottle kiln heritage print, key to King Charles and his love of the potteries and the children used her guidance to work together and create a unique commemorative piece. The art work was unveiled at the Coronation Afternoon Tea on Tuesday, comprising of a union Jack Flag and bottle Kiln Crowns. On behalf of myself and the staff we would like to Thank each and everyone of you and your families, who were able to attend to celebrate this event, which ended up at over 100 people. The outdoor area was so joyful, full of food, happiness and community spirit, perfect for this kind of Regal celebration. We heard the biggest round of applause for the children’s and Kate’s Art too!

 Next week we will continue to sow our new seeds and develop our vegetable patch. We will be putting our gross motor skills to the ultimate test, building a balancing and obstacle course around the Forest Schools space outside. Indoors, we are building and balancing in a different way as we extend our block play measuring tall, wide and long using metre sticks and measuring tapes.

Oaklands Nursery will also be supporting the Walk to School Week and Child Mental Health Day which begins w/c 15.05.2023. We do hope you will join us in supporting this by getting active, staying healthy physically and mentally and environmental awareness week, where logistically possible of course! 

The spring bulbs and flower beds are all starting to flower with our care. This week we are digging a permanent space to start our own vegetable patch! Any donations are gratefully received, we are looking for compost, vegetable seeds or small vegetable plants to cultivate. 

The children were very lucky to experience a ballet taster class last week with the lovely and talented Miss Rachel from Wolstanton Dance Academy. They explored weather movement with scarves, tambourines and how our toes and nose point the same way, to make a first position.

We have received caterpillars which are currently beginning to move around and feed, having hatched from their eggs. We have shared The Very Hungry Caterpillar story and are keen to observe progress as they also grow and change alongside the development of our tadpoles!

We are very much looking forward to celebrating the King's Coronation with an Afternoon tea session with our families this week. We will unveil the commemorative art work the children completed in the Artist Workshop with local artist Kate Windsor on the day to display in celebration of King Charles III and his love of heritage and the Potteries. 

It was so nice to see all our existing and new children coming into nursery this week with smiles and enthusiasm. We have loved sharing your Easter challenges and holiday news this week, you have certainly all been very active. 

The language table has been a really busy space as we have been exploring Handa’s Surprise. We found Africa on the globe, practised our balancing skills, as well as learning some new and unusual fruits. 

Our pond has come to life, and we were so excited to be able to observe changes so soon. Some of our eggs had hatched out of the frogspawn and are tadpoles already! We read and sequenced the life cycle of a frog which is "growing so fast" and "quite amazing" 🐸

In preparation for our Coronation celebrations, next week we are talking about King Charles, his role, his passion for gardening and preservation and how much he loves Stoke on Trent and the Pottery. Local artist Kate Windsor is coming to experiment with print techniques and using traditional colours of the Union Jack next week. Kate will be nurturing our creative side and helping us make a commemorative piece of art for the Coronation. 

Please let us know if you are attending the Coronation Afternoon tea session:

Tuesday 2nd May 12-1245 pm. All parents, carers, grandparents, or aunties and Uncles are welcome to join us for this occasion. You can bring your own lunch, but we will be making extra snacks too! 

In addition to all of, this it is International Dance Day on April 29th and the local Dance school, Wolstanton Dance Academy are running a free taster ballet session for all children in Nursery on Wednesday morning. 

We are going to be very, very busy! 

Week commencing 27/3

We continued to explore our mindfulness for a healthy lifestyle, healthy me. We enjoyed Spring and Calm yoga poses, as we used these and deep belly breathing to exercise and to calm our minds and bodies. Our favourite was the Tree and Chair pose. We conducted a survey each day of breakfast and did you know 1/3 of our children have chocolate in or on their breakfast almost everyday! The children are being encouraged to have a think about what they could have instead, especially as Easter treats are looming. 

Our Easter bonnet Parade was a huge success, thank you to every parent, grandparent, aunty or uncle who attended and supported the children, making their hats and in return they sung their hearts out with such super confidence and enthusiasm. It was a lovely day to remember. Here's a top tip, save your bonnet for next year, you can reuse or reinvent it for Nursery or Reception!

After the Easter Holidays we are exploring lifecycles as we have had visitors to the pond and we are hopeful we will have our own frogspawn to observe and follow. We are also talking about emotions and friendships as we sadly say goodbye to some children this term, who are moving on and house, as well as welcoming a small number of new children to our Oaklands Family.

Last week we explored food. For a "healthy lifestyle and healthy me" as we sorted and decided what healthy choices are. This also helped to improve our fine motor skills, chopping and dicing and for noticing details, experiencing texture and using the senses as we painted. 

Stickman and his Stick Ladylove were back in the building! There were some amazing critical thinking, experimenting and problem solving in our models again to ensure limbs were firmly in position, This is really challenging the children in this workspace now to join and combine multiple media and materials. 

Next week we are welcoming families in to attend our Easter bonnet parade and songs on Wednesday 29th March 11am and 2.15pm. We are also talking all things PANTS with Pantosaurus from the NSPCC safeguarding agenda for children. The staff in nursery will start this conversation to make it easier for you and further guidance will be sent home to support this. Please also see the parent planning as there is more information and an important link where you can watch the video with your child. 

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/pants-underwear-rule/

Last week we hosted our Mother's Day workshops and what a fantastic response we had. The children are extremely lucky to have such supportive and creative Mummies and Nans who demonstrated some excellent teamwork as they created their Mother's day memorabilia together, by painting and combining media and materials to create an effect.

We also enjoyed hide and seek outside this week, using positional language as we hid, and testing our counting skills beyond 10, 20 and counting in 10's for some children's additional challenge. 

Super hero play and stories has been a lovely focus inside this week, along with continuing to build cities and making maps. 

Next week we are focusing on Healthy lifestyle and Healthy me, exploring fruit and vegetables, chopping, painting, sorting and categorising healthy and unhealthy snacks and why they affect our bodies. We will also explore mindfulness and calm through our PSE and P4C discussions, for a Healthy mind and Self-regulation skills. 

Please don't forget the Easter Bonnet parade is Wednesday 29th March at 11am and 2.15pm . All creations should be in for Monday 27th March. 

At the beginning of the week, Spring was around the corner and we were noticing and labelling key features of flowers and matching colour shades “light pink” as we paint. Our fine motor skills and dexterity are also being put to the test as we try sewing this week. “This is so tricky! I am doing very well”.

On Thursday, Winter was back which can only mean one thing, more snow and more outdoor fun. Remember - there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing and soggy gloves. ❄️ ⛄️

Next week we are looking forward to seeing how our cress is growing and welcoming special ladies into our Mother's Day craft workshops. If you have not booked a space there is some availability in the afternoon sessions, please see your child key worker to reserve a slot. 

Easter bonnet information has now been sent out, our parades are Wednesday 29th March and we are excited to see what you are creating. I have also attached some safety advice from Millie's trust connected to Easter treats and potential choking hazards:

https://www.milliestrust.com/

Stick Man has been our theme on Forest schools last week. We have explored and sequenced the story and made maps to guide stick man home.  We collected sticks, played pooh sticks and created a swans' nest. Our sticks are now in the workshop to decorate after half term. 

After exploring the bug hotels and insect hiding places, we were inspired to paint and match our bugs using our non-fiction books.  “That is mine, it's a same”. I am making a butterfly 🦋 

We are all really looking forward to World book day on Thursday 2nd March. Don't forget to come in your pyjamas or if your child is reluctant to, bring them with you and they can always change if they want to. Reminder NO Onesies please! 

Last week the children and parents enjoyed some fantastic Musical workshops, where we shared our love of music, with the essential learning that comes from these sessions with our Mums, Dads, Aunties and Baby sisters. Thank you to all those who were able to support us on this occasion and joined in. Our next Parent workshop will be our Mothers Day Craft sessions, dates of which will be confirmed after the half term.

 The children have thoroughly enjoyed being back in the Forest Schools area, making campfires and cooking lunches for each other. They were also fascinated with the tree surgeons in the local Dingle, who were completing some maintenance and tree felling, the tools they used and how they control the tree fall using ropes and pulleys. We are especially grateful for the donation of small log stumps, which have replaced some of our old log seating in the outdoor classroom. We will be using this space again next week for our Stick Man themed activities in our Forest School sessions. Can you ensure your children have wellies in Nursery and extra layers on to keep them warm please for these activities.

Upcoming dates for your diary:

Thursday 2nd March – World Book Day – Children are invited to come to Nursery on this day in pyjamas (no onesies please). We will be exploring our favourite books in Nursery by following a big bedtime story theme, with Cookies and Hot chocolate.

 Week commencing Monday 13th March – Mothers Day Craft parent workshops – Days and Session times tbc

 Saturday March 25th – School Community Sponsored Walk – Details to follow

 Wednesday 29th March – Easter Celebrations – Our Easter Bonnet parade in Nursery 11am and 2.30pm.

Last week we had the Local PCSO with Bobbie the mini police car, a Postman and a Nurse visiting the children. We explored these important jobs of everyday people who help us in role play and asked questions about the people in our communities to help us learn more about what they do each day. Such as “What is your favourite tea after a busy day?” “How many letters do you deliver every day?” “Do you do injections? I don’t like injections!”.

 Outside we have been experimenting with the kites we made in the workshop, how these work in the wind and how they can work when it’s not windy. We discovered this works best when you’re holding it high and going fast on a bike or scooter.

 This week we welcome parents in to share in our musical workshops to promote physical health and well-being and to learn how music promotes listening and attention and early literacy skills. We are also excited to be back in our Forest School space in the outdoor classroom area,  now that some renovation and winter clearing work has been completed.

Last week, the children continued to explore modelling with found items. Combining media and materials, we built aeroplanes, treasure boxes and moved onto houses, which meant our construction became larger and more detailed. We incorporated windows, doors, gardens and fold out back walls so we could fit people inside. We are so engaged and busy learning here, we are continuing with this, this week too!

We have started to see some real progress in our dough disco sessions, where we are progressing our fine motor skills and finger strength, for early literacy, pencil grip and hand co-ordination.  

We have particularly enjoyed the builders yard outside in the large sandpit, where our gross motor strength and co-ordination has been tested, building walls. moving large equipment and wheelbarrows with awkward and heavy loads. 

Next week we have the Local PCSO, a Postman and a Nurse visiting the children, who will be exploring this in role play and asking questions about the people who help us and work in our communities everyday. 

Last week we explored oral hygiene. Where sugar comes from and what is required to keep our teeth and body healthy, including a good brushing technique. You have a toothbrush challenge to complete over the next month, to gain your certificate! Remember twice a day and here is the NHS guidance to dental care. Children's teeth - NHS (www.nhs.uk)  

We also explored Measure in Maths, using the language of longer, longest, shorter, shortest with our blocks. The children were very competitive as they compared their lines of blocks. 

We loved the snow, exploring and experimenting with it. We brought it inside to see what happens and talked about how it changes our outdoor classroom space and garden, as well as jumped, made footprints and some of us even tasted it. 

Next week we are experimenting with sounds from the story "A perfect day for it" and discussing E-Safety.  Here is a link which can support you as parents in how to keep your children safe now and as they grow older and interact more with technology, social media and online forums.  https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/online-safety-guide-0-5-year-olds/

This week the new children have continue to settle in and joined us for Lunch club sessions. 

The weather has been very wet, but warmer and as a result the children have observed seasonal changes in the garden whilst digging, where bulbs and buds have started to sprout very early. We are carefully watching and measuring our bulbs to see who's is the tallest and shortest. 

Indoors we have demonstrated an interest in modelling and will be pursuing this next week, with recyclable items from home. We are also exploring oral hygiene next week, what are sugary snacks and drinks and developing good brushing techniques.

Happy new year to everyone from us all! Welcome back to our existing cohort and Welcome to our new starters this week.

We have certainly been busy, enjoying the bikes and the outdoor space. Sharing our experiences of special occasions and memories of Christmas with our families, friends and our favourite gifts and re-establishing our nursery routines and independent skills.

A particular favourite has been making animals and exploring joining techniques in the workshop space. 

Next week, we are exploring healthy eating and breakfast choices on our Philosophy for Children, P4C sessions, which we will be telling you more about, in preparation for our first P4C home talk challenge.  We will also be embracing the mud kitchen again, so please ensure all children have correctly sized wellies back in nursery and are in old warm clothing and don't become too worried about getting dirty. Aprons are provided and coats wipe and wash quite easily thankfully!

Week commencing 5/12

Last week the children were creative with all things that sparkle, as they combined media and materials to create their Christmas greetings card. Using their developing mark making skills they began to scribe a simple message for their loved ones to share during this special time. This week we will continue with this skill as we finish our letters to Father Christmas. 

We enjoyed our Christmas story performance and hope you all did too. The children worked so hard and have continued to role play this throughout the week, taking on all characters In the performance independently and singing their hearts out! 

This week we will be embracing Santa and the Elves workshop in the indoor and outdoor areas. We are also looking forward to the Christmas disco, Wednesday 14th December 5.00-630pm with a very special visitor. 

Have a good last week of term everyone! 

Last week we welcomed Sir Gadabout to launch our library service. He is one of the characters from the Zog story by Julia Donaldson, which we thoroughly enjoyed listening to. We spent the afternoon choosing books and listening for dragons! 

On Wednesday we met, fed and petted the nativity animals who really brought the Christmas story to life for us. Racket the donkey was a particular favourite. 

The outdoor area was a hustle and bustle as we busied in the builders yard retelling the story of the three little pigs. Trying our hardest using critical thinking to make a house the big bad wolf could not blow down and laying pipes for the hot water pot. 

Next week we are so excited to host families and friends for our Nativity story performance and are combining media and materials to make Christmas cards for our loved ones. 

Early science was so evident in the outdoors last week. The physics of things that roll was in action as the children explored a range of loose parts and added balls to test their slides, ramps and why won’t it go up? Why is it getting stuck? Ongoing experimentation, adjusting the resources. Some fantastic critical thinking!

We welcomed and trained all children to begin using our self-service cafe! You have to wash your hands and register your name when you are ready to eat. Then we find our snacks, eat our food, choose milk or water and chat to our friends. Then we have to tidy up and wash our dishes. 

We've begun our Christmas story rehearsals, found and tried on costumes and Mrs Key said we sounded beautiful already! 

On Friday we all went pattern crazy as we supported the BBC Children in Need fund raiser, we are so appreciative of all donations made. We know this is a difficult financial climate, yet you still managed to raise £​69.00 which is fantastic! Thank you so much. 

Next week, we are using our senses looking at interesting objects to build our descriptive vocabulary as we explore and describe what they look and feel like and attempt to represent some of these and trace their shapes for observational drawings. We will also be meeting some new characters in our key worker groups, who will be coming home soon to meet your families, for a sleepover, Very exciting! 

Last week we welcomed parents and children to our Forest school activities in our Bonfire Bonanza. We explored the natural area and back garden, discussing what would be good choices to start a fire. We listened and followed the safety rules, but were then equipped and able to take risks as we enjoyed toasting a marshmallow on our cooking sticks. This activity continues this week for those who have already booked a place. 

The children began to look and talk about themselves as we explored our facial features and created a first portrait. It is an amazing insight watching children look at their own reflection and think about other places we can see a reflection, like water, a spoon or a shiny bowl.

Next week is Maths week and we will be embracing additional maths activities throughout the classroom environment and outdoors. 

We will also be supporting Children in Need on Friday 18th November. Everyone is invited to join us wearing spots, stripes or any pattern at all. Donations of £1 will be gratefully accepted for anyone who feels they are able to. 

Last week we celebrated Diwali, by looking at Rangoli pattern and hand painting. We carried some of these patterns on outside in chalks and linked them all up across the whole floor. 

We made our own salt dough to give us a base to make a Diva Lamp, as the story we watched showed how the house was decorated for the festival of light. 

We had a fantastic visit from the Newcastle District Fire service on Friday, we asked questions about what other things they do besides putting out fires, tried on their PPE and explored the fire engine and water hoses outside.

Next Week we will be using their Fire safety tips, as we embrace our Forest schools parent workshop and make our own Fire pit to cook a tasty treat!

Before the half term the children fully embraced the mud kitchen, exploring new textures and learning to negotiate space and use large digging tools safely. We were aiming for the perfect mud pie! and had quite a few. 

Indoors lots of children created homes and habitats with people and the wild animals and developed some Helicopter stories using the characters from this, which supported our imagination and literacy development. 

This week we will be learning all about people and communities. We are celebrating Diwali, by exploring celebrations and traditional dress. As well as rangoli patterns, hand art prints and making Diva lamps. 

We are also excited to share that the Fire Service are coming to visit Friday 4th November at 9.30-10.30am. Anyone who is not in Nursery on that day is welcome to come with a parent / carer and join us for the activity for this hour. 

Last week the children enjoyed enrichment experiences sharing the book “Everybody Said No!”. They gathered apples, peeled, sliced and steamed them, before mixing and rubbing ingredients together to make a crumble. It tasted and smelled amazing.

 Our favourite activity last week was hide and seek. We explored this outside in the Forest schools garden, made maps and used positional language. We then brought this theme inside when playing with the large castle, hiding and finding characters and making maps of where in the castle we found them.

 I would like to to say a huge thank you to the families who are really embracing the “crisp packet challenge” project. We have already collected more than we did last year, which is incredible. We will be sending our first batch off shortly to be tuned into sleeping bags for the homeless as the cold weather is arriving and our contribution will be much needed.

This week we have been putting our gross motor skills to the test exploring our Forest schools spaces. We have collected leaves, sticks and pine cones for the Discovery and Art area, which have been used to print and make trees. 

Thanks to a huge haul of conkers this week from one of our families, we have engaged our curiosity and introduced the language of size, comparison, 10 frames, description, texture and talked about how nature is changing our gardens and weather during Autumn. We also had a go at drawing some of them. Who knew so much learning could come from a bag of conkers!

Next week we are exploring our families, who and what is "special". 

This week the children have been learning all about caring for our environment by using the 3R's - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle as we celebrate Green Week and launch our recycling system and Foil Crisp packet project within the nursery and extend this to our families. Thank you to those already beginning to contribute. More details can be found in Mrs Smiths parent friendly planning, or the nursery website under parents - weekly planning activities - 3yr old room. https://www.oaklands.staffs.sch.uk/weekly-planning/

The children have accessed the recyclable items in the workshop and re-used them to make pictures, rockets, jewellery boxes and butterflies. We have also looked at simple repeating pattern and worked on our fine motor strength as we click the multilink together. We have also worked hard negotiating space with large tools and learning how to change our shoes and wellies this week in the outdoor sandpit. 

Next week we are accessing the Forest schools garden in our wellies building our Exploring Elephants skills and using the larger-scale climbing equipment and tree. Don't forget your wellies!

Wild animals and farm animals were “lining up“ in a large parade last week. When asked why they were lining up we were told they were “going to see the Queen”. It just goes to show how events of time, history and what we see on TV or social media influence the thoughts, minds and play of our smallest learners! The parade lasted “for 16 hours”.

We were also exploring our fine motor skills and creative sides with the building blocks last week. Concentration, perseverance, and precision were all used to build and carefully place these blocks to make a sweet, chocolate, cup cake and cheese shop. "All my favourite things". 

This week the children are learning all about caring for our environment by using the 3R's - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle as we celebrate Green Week and launch our recycling system and Foil Crisp packet project within the nursery and extend this to our families.

Last week, the children continued to have successful transitions, building relationships with their keyworkers and staff and sampling their first lunch  club. The staff continued our home visits, further supporting these important relationships also.

In the classroom, pirates was a key theme as the children re-used and recycled some old boxes, decorating them with pencil crayons, chalks and cushions. One of the boxes split after being used for a while and one of the children, made a keen observation that this would sink if it was on the water! “Oh no we’re sinking now!”.  

We continued to embrace the outdoor area, and started to prepare the flower beds for seasonal bulb planting also.

We are really impressed with how engaging and settled our new children have been in just a few sessions. Our staff have also been enjoying the start of our home visits and building relationships. 

The children were busy making their own play dough and had become interested in our recipe book. We practised some sounds and making a list to go shopping later in the week to buy ingredients. 

On Friday, we talked about Road safety as we walked to the shop to buy our ingredients. We noticed the last time we were together to eat cake was for the Queens Jubilee celebration. Here are some more after following a recipe. A lovely way to think about the Queen and the royal family and to end our first week back together. 
 

The Summer sing-a-long was a huge success despite warm temperatures. It was a privilege to watch the children perform so well in front of a large audience. A big “Thank you” to all who came to watch and supported us in providing costumes etc. Many thanks once again to all Governors, parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles and carers, who support us all year round. We are so incredibly lucky! 

I would also like to extend our thanks to Danni from "Propstars events" who provided the colourful backdrop alongside the children's art work, which set a perfect scene in the garden.

We also enjoyed our Leavers' Disco on Friday which was a really nice end to our week of celebrations, where we all got to dance the evening away and enjoyed our hot dogs and ice creams.

This week we have continued to enjoy the texture of the clean mud, after last week's very messy mud activities.

The children have enjoyed the loose parts construction play in the Forest schools garden and made their own campfire spaces, pretending to toast marshmallows. They also discovered bugs nearby and the bug hotel creatures, which helped us to classify what they were. We had to be very quiet and patient as we waited for the snail to come out of it's shell!

The potato harvesting has begun and we are counting and collecting potatoes as the week has progressed. The children have cut, chopped and peeled them and made wedges and creamy mash so far this week, we have more planned for next week to continue cooking, so please do continue to bring your potato crop in. 

The "Big School" staff have been to visit us this week, ready for Reception transitions for those children who are moving on. It was great to share our learning and showcase our nursery to other professionals, who all commented on how lovely our classroom and outdoor space in particular was, and how independent your children have become. 

The children have been embracing International mud day with muddy activities this week and a day where we could get as messy as we like and we did!  We had wormy mud spaghetti, a muddy Barefoot walk, clean mud, mud painting, a muddy splash zone and our mud kitchen.  We have also been colour mixing again and making gardens out of cardboard boxes, with paint and grass and daisy collections

Next week we are continuing to learn songs for our Summer sing-a-long. We are also harvesting our potatoes for a maths activity and cooking them in a variety of ways. 

Week commencing 20/6

In the 3yr old room we explored holidays and journeys. We sorted and classified clothing into hot and cold holiday suitcases. We made lists using our knowledge of key sounds. We have looked at the globe and atlas to find hot and cold countries and talked about which animals may live there. In the back garden we have embraced the beach hut shop, the paddling pool on the hotter days and making ice creams. We were very grateful for ice pops on Thursday, one of the hottest days of the week, sent in by Luna and her parents.

This week we have had a huge response and attendance in our Fathers Day / Special Gentleman workshop where we have designed picture frames, looking at patterns and embracing our creative sides. 

We have made a caravan out of a very large cardboard box and been exploring holidays, picnics and journeys, which we will be extending in our outdoor provision next week.

Next week, we are packing our suitcases for a hot or Cold holiday and making lists of the things we may need. We will be designing our own passports and doing an up to date portrait of ourselves. 

The 3yr old room enjoyed their annual school trip on Wednesday. In preparation for this we talked about car and vehicle safety, water safety and stranger danger, including what to do if you lose your grown up! We are very pleased everyone listened and this was not a problem. 

The coach proved a very exciting part of the trip and the children loved being so high up and being able to see different cars and animals in the fields. 

When we arrived we all experienced pond dipping and finding the creatures on a tick list. Bug hunting, butterfly sweeping and decorated our own sticky caterpillars. But I think our favourite part was our picnic lunch. 

We had a fantastic day and would like to thank all our parent helpers once again for their support. Here are some of our pictures recalling the day. 

This week we are welcoming special gentlemen in our lives and families into our creative workshop for a Father's Day experience. 

What an end of half term we had! The children excelled in the workshop area, demonstrating their creativity as they continue to experiment with joining materials to create binoculars and magic wands, as well as crowns for the Jubilee celebration. Purple group have explored "The Huge Bag of Worries" story, which has led to many fascinating conversations about worries, stresses and anxiety. This has highlighted how what may be little things for adults can be so important to young children. The children were supported to write their own worries down and posted them into "Sunny" the worry eater. They created Sunny together to help them take some of their worries and fears away.   We ended the week, with the most incredible turn out for our Jubilee afternoon tea. The children had made their own fruit kebabs and decorated buggy biscuits after enjoying our Forest Schools bug themed week. Thank you to each and every Parent, Grandparent and Carer who were able to join us and support the children and Nursery staff.

This week the children have experienced maths in different contexts throughout the Nursery as we celebrate National Maths week. 

From using money in our grocery shop, to counting jewels on the Queens Crown, measuring ourselves by drawing around our shadows and shoes, to going on a number hunt in the water tray and joining shapes in a pattern as we create our Jubilee party bunting.

 We have observed the tadpoles again, who have grown larger this week, but have not yet got their back legs. In just 5 days the caterpillars have also become wider and longer!

 As the children are consistently stronger and confident with the bikes and obstacles now, we have explored the hand bike this week, which encourages upper arm strength and fine motor skills gripping, turning and steering the bike via the handle bars only. It takes a lot of co-ordination too and the children have been really supportive of one another giving directions to how to operate successfully.

 Next week, we are “Getting the Bug” on our Forest schools week and finishing our Jubilee Afternoon Tea decorations and party planning. Please don’t forget to join us if you can, next Friday at 12 to 1245pm. The invitation is open to a Mum, Dad, Carer, Aunty, Uncle, Grandma or Grandad to attend.

This week the children have been working on asking questions and did this by writing letters to each other. We explored addresses, initial sounds and what process a letter follows to get from A to B. We walked to the post office, bought our stamps and posted our letters and were so excited when they arrived back addressed to us and our friends who could then answer our questions and write back to us! A postman visited us to talk about his job in the community, he talked about his van and how many letters he carries everyday and where he delivers within our borough. 

We have also been learning about the Queen and the forthcoming Jubilee celebrations. The children have worked hard designing a mug, which they all said had to be beautiful for the Queen to have a cup of tea or coffee. 

We observed the tadpoles who have got bigger, but have not got their back legs yet or started to change into froglets and our caterpillars have arrived!

Next week is National Maths week and a wide variety of maths activities will be taking place, throughout the whole nursery. We also have the photographer coming in, for group photographs on Wednesday 18th May. 

Last week the children enjoyed a warm and then very soggy walk to the Dingle, observing signs of spring in our natural environment and collecting items to explore further back in Nursery. They thoroughly enjoyed the space and produced some lovely maps of how to get there and key features that can be seen along with how to get back to the Nursery safely, as well as watching the busy fishermen. Water play was popular, we have explored water ways and how water does not like to go up. The babies have all been cared for bathed, dried and re-dressed and we have explored sinking and floating with rocks and balls. Our maths investigation last week was finding out all about heavy, light, heavier and lighter. The children had a great time on the see-saw weighing each other and worked out that not all that is large is necessarily heavy, finding out that a huge piece of paper is not as heavy as a house brick. Our final treat of the week was a guest author, Ginty Thorley, who brought her first published book, “Buddy the Campervan” to Nursery accompanied by the real camper van Buddy, for us to look inside. We particularly enjoyed peeping the horn! This week the children are investigating how to write a letter, we are going to be asking some very interesting questions, walking to the post office to buy stamps and then posting them out to our friends as we eagerly wait for a reply. A big thank you to Tesco once again, as the children and staff have explored and consumed a variety of fresh fruit which they kindly donated via their community alliance scheme. Any surplus will be left out at the end of each week for families to help themselves to and enjoy as a healthy weekend snack.

What an amazing and very busy week we have all had!

After last week's healthy eating activity, we followed on this week, talking about Dental hygiene and the importance of good choices for Oral Health. We read a story about visiting the dentist. The children sorted more food to identify sugar and how this attacks our teeth and can make cavities. We talked about using a dummy and how this affects tooth growth. We also used some sample teeth to demonstrate and practise our good brushing techniques - 2 times every day for 2 whole minutes each time, and how important it is a grown up still checks we have done a good job! 

The children have taken home their toothbrush challenges now and we are looking forward to seeing them fill up so they can return them and get their super star brushing certificate.

We would also like to thank all the parents/carers who supported the Easter Bonnet parade this week. We had lots of smiles, cheering and clapping and some of the best bonnets we have ever seen, well done everyone for your super hard work you looked fantastic and all the teachers were very proud!

After the Easter Holidays we will be concentrating on growth and change and life cycles as our frogspawn has started to change already into tadpoles. 

Have a safe, restful and enjoyable Easter break everyone! Take care. 

This week the 3yr old room have been exploring healthy eating and making good and bad choices as we pack the giant's lunch box. The children noticed the traffic light system on the food packaging and we discussed how this helps us to stop, think and make better food choices. We incorporated talking about sugar and the importance of dental hygiene, which we will be exploring more next week. 

We have incorporated different ways of printing in the workshop area, as a family visited a butterfly farm at the weekend and the children joined in with butterfly prints and talked about the paint mixing, copying and being the same on the other side after they folded their paintings over. 

Green group have really enjoyed the Bear Hunt story, packing a bag for a bear hunt and making their own maps this week, which has seen some amazing creations! 

We have had lots of secret storytellers this week, which has been wonderful including one dressed as a knight reading Zog, by Julia Donaldson. 

What a fantastic week we have had full of celebrations!

We have welcomed mums and special ladies in for our crafts workshops and made some lovely creations and memories.  

We have celebrated the Hindu spring festival of Holi in all our colour mixing activities indoors and outdoors. 

The children have also been able to taste their cress, with cheese and crackers, which grew huge over the weekend!

Next week we are discussing healthy eating and building our ball skills outside, kicking, throwing and catching. 

We hope you have been busy getting ready for our sponsored walk and are all able to join us on Saturday 2^nd April. 

What a busy week it has been! We have completed our Forest Schools sessions exploring the topic of Jack and the Beanstalk and being brave. 

The children have been embracing British Science week, which this year has a theme of growing. We have planted cress and runner beans so far and are already starting to see changes in these, as they begin to show their shoots. We have made a list of other things we would like to grow also and will be walking to buy these seeds very soon. 

Our outdoor cafe, after our real visit last week has been extremely popular, with customers placing lots of orders each day. We have also been learning how to use our new sensory light table and looking at colour changes and mixing with the paddles, discs and jewels and painting lots of portraits. 

Next week we are so pleased to be able to welcome in special ladies in our life, to support us in a craft activity in our Mothers Day workshops.

This week we have been exploring the Forest schools space, with the theme of Jack and the Beanstalk. We talked about how brave Jack was and were "Go for it Gorillas" as we tried to climb our own 'beanstalk' climbing tree.

Jack hid from the giant and as we hid in the garden, we challenged ourselves to find somewhere to hide inside, under, behind or next to. We were super at counting and finding one another with our clues. We made a new home for Jack and his mother and a healthy snack also, as they were so poor. 

A few of the children have been making maps of our local community and we followed one on Wednesday. It took us out of Oaklands Avenue, past the houses, the post-box and the Co-op and we arrived at the local cafe! We had a fantastic time, with hot chocolate and toast and found lots of other things to include on our next map.

This week we will be completing our Forest Schools sessions and embracing British science week. The theme this year is growth and the children are currently making a list of things we would like to grow. It may mean another trip out, this time to the hardware store, to get seeds!

Here is a link for you to enjoy and download your family fun pack for British Science week. 

- https://www.britishscienceweek.org/app/uploads/2019/02/BSA_EurotunnelTerminal_handout_1118_W1.pdf

What a fabulous first week back we have had! The children have embraced celebrations all week round as we 'flipped out' and made pancakes with delicious healthy toppings. Then we donned our cosy pyjamas for world book day's big bedtime story theme, sharing our favourite stories, enjoying hot chocolate and cookies, with comfy cushions and blankets. 

Next week the Children are going to need some warm layers, as we will be exploring in our Forest Schools sessions throughout the week with activities surrounding a traditional story of Jack and the Beanstalk. 

The children have loved the windy day boxes this week, watching the windmills and scarves show the direction and speed of the weather and then wondering why when we took them inside they weren't as effective.  We also watched the rain and sunshine together make the most beautiful rainbow yesterday to everyone's amazement, it disappeared - We wondered where rainbows went?

We have used our observation skills to notice shape, detail and use our descriptive language as we explored a treasure trove of wooden and natural objects. We incorporated words like bumpy, spiky, fuzzly and smooth all around before producing some of our own drawings trying to include the details and shapes. 

Next week is half term and we have sent out your Child and Parents challenge to enjoy! You don't have to do them all, we just wanted to provide enough different activities to keep you busy and a variety to suit everyone. 

When we return we will be getting our chef's hats on to make yummy pancakes and explore different healthy toppings. Thursday 3^rd March all children and staff are welcome to come to nursery in their pyjamas for the day to enjoy a big bedtime story, hot chocolate and cookies with our favourite books. Please do try and ensure children wear top and trouser style pyjamas, onesies are very hard to get to the toilet efficiently in, at this age. 

Enjoy half term, stay safe and well everyone!

This week the children have loved the Gingerbread Man story and Little Red Riding Hood traditional tales to act out and be creative with. They have begun to scribe their own stories and pictures as budding Authors and Illustrators, with adult support. We have built pathways and check points talking about directions and stopping stations and will be experimenting more with this next week. 

 We have also enjoyed counting Gingerbread men into the oven, practising who has the most and fewest and spotting number patterns as we use a dice.

 Next week, we are reading the Perfect Day for it by Jan Fearnley and beginning winter colour mixing.

It has been so lovely to welcome the children back and hear all about your Christmas celebrations. The children were keen and happy to return to their friends and re-establish their nursery routines once again, with their key workers.

We have mostly enjoyed transporting things this week, in bags, in the small trucks and large wheelbarrows and trundles. We have also worked really hard on balancing in our block play, some of our castles have been amazing!

The 3yr old room have thoroughly enjoyed the Farm on wheels visit this week. The children got to have a first-hand experience of meeting the nativity animals, petting and walking some of them. We even sang Little Donkey to Racket the donkey!

We have been building cars and santa trains with the large scale boxes and fabric, demonstrating our creative side. Many of us are also excited as we prepare for our first Oaklands Christmas disco this evening - we have all asked for the Hokey Cokey and disco lights. 

This week the children enjoyed a real treat exploring the Forest School garden, making a bonfire, cooking marshmallows and warming up with hot chocolate. 

We have also enjoyed the mechanics' garage this week, where we have refuelled and repaired engines and tyres, rescuing one another. 

Next week we are making our own salt dough, beginning to look at Christmas celebrations and starting to use our own self-service cafe. 

The children enjoyed a mixture of online and nursery based activities last week. They demonstrated increased independence in accessing the tools and materials in the workshop area, exploring patterns and colours through leaf painting and printing as well as fixing the nursery bikes in the outdoor mechanics’ garage. They explored the back garden, hunting for bears and dragons with some children creating their own maps.

We have had a maths is everywhere week! The children enjoyed making targets and throwing and aiming at key numbers 1 to 5 and adding their own numbers, shapes and targets using chalk. We have explored shapes in a variety of ways even with our left over pumpkins, matched shapes and hunted for them around the nursery environment. “The cave is a triangle too!”.

This week we also talked about the poppy and why we wear them. Everyone was thankful for something, in respect to the heroes who helped to keep us safe. The children all explored red paint and different textures, which helped to build the Oaklands Poppy which is currently on display outside with our thankful hands.

This week we have enjoyed exploring the back garden,  the autumn leaves including those from our home challenge, the climbing equipment and see-saw.  We have sorted, matched and arranged our leaves to make pictures and done some lovely counting with them too. The Halloween pumpkins have been very popular this week and our Meg and Mog story!

Next week the children will be learning all about the Poppy and how it makes us Remember and be Thankful for our lives and world today. We are also having our own bonfire bonanza with some tasty treats, as we enjoy our first Forest Schools sessions. 

Week commencing 18th October

The children have been exploring and experimenting with things that roll this week, indoors and out.  The fire station role play has been extremely popular and we have enjoyed using the balancing equipment to support this, as bridges and roads. 

Your autumn challenge is attached and has been uploaded to the website also. We hope everyone has a safe, healthy and restful half term. 

When we return, we will be making patterns in nature with various objects and our autumn collections and accessing the Forest Schools space. 

The sun shone for us all week to embrace National Day of Spain in a variety of ways with one of our Spanish families.

The children have made their own fans and enjoyed castanets, maracas, a Merengue and Salsa dance as well as singing and counting in English and Spanish.  The children have especially enjoyed the colours rhyme , why don't you give it a go at home!

English/Spanish Color Song (Jan Barry)

(Tune: “Frere Jacques” Children repeat each line.)

Red is rojo. Red is rojo.
Blue, azul. Blue, azul.
Yellow, amarillo. Yellow, amarillo.
Green, verde. Green, verde.

Next week, we will continue to celebrate difference and culture as we meet some new friends in our nursery key worker groups. Outside we will be enjoying a variety of ball games, for kicking, throwing, catching and turn taking. 

The rain has finally stopped enough for us to have our first experience exploring the mud kitchen. Our recipes included - chocolate mud cake, mucky pie and soup. We have had a lovely time finding out about each other's families, how they are the same and different this week also. We have counted everyone and discovered who has the most in their house. There is still time to send your family photos in this week to your keyworkers if you have not done so already. 

Next week we are embracing National Day of Spain in a variety of ways with one of our Spanish families, please see the parents planning on the website for more information. I have attached a short video clip of a fun Spanish counting song, you can have a go at, at home! Enjoy!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF85Kg3yTQA

This is our first full week of everyone attending the setting doing their full hours and we have all worked very hard.  We have enjoyed exploring our face, using mirrors and reflections. We noticed key features about ourselves, our friends and how we are often the same and different! We continued this painting in the workshop, where we represented some of these key features. Our recycling project is in full swing and the children are taking responsibility for segregating food scraps, cardboard from foil and washing their pots for the plastics tray. The home corner has been very popular this week, with lots of children packing for the beach and going for a swim – maybe trying to avoid all the rain we have been having!

This week we have really enjoyed the vets and doctors role play space outdoors. There have been lots of patients to look after.

We have discovered an old tree and are decorating it for our wellbeing - "tell me" tree. Somewhere we can share our thoughts and feelings. 

You can find out more about it here - https://kareninglisauthor.com/2020/07/02/the-tell-me-tree-and-other-news/

Next week we are looking at ourselves, our faces and painting a simple portrait. We will also be exploring our mud kitchen in the outdoor area, Wellies at the ready!

We have had another really lovely week settling into our new environment, getting to know our new friends and our teachers.

We have mostly enjoyed, the petrol station outside, lots more water play - emptying and filling on a large and small scale and talking about bubbling over and volcanoes. 

We have explored more construction and recreated our favourite places, this is Alton Towers and CBeebies land!

This week we will be exploring recycling and how we can help the environment and some of us will be staying for lunch club.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000hs1w/maddies-do-you-know-series-4-10-glass-recycling-and-jam

What a lovely first week we have had welcoming back all our existing children and the new starters and their families.

You can see how busy we have been, embracing and exploring our new environment already. What a fantastic start!

What a fun week we have had! The children have excelled themselves at our mini Olympics demonstrating they know so much about exercise and how it effects their bodies. We had some amazing warm up suggestions before starting our sports day as well. Everyone had a go and tried their best at completing our obstacle course, soggy sponge throw,  bean bag balance challenge as well as going for goals with our amazing new football net. The ice lollies we had to cool us down were also a real treat and we made healthy fruit smoothies, after discussing what our bodies need to keep them strong. In addition to this the children have been using their imaginations and exploring 3D shapes through block play and model making with reclaimed materials. Ideas have ranged from transformers to unicorns. We have also revisited traditional stories, in our mark making, I wonder if you can guess which ones these are?

This week, we have enjoyed all things nautical, from sealife and holiday beach play, to pirates, maps and even walking the plank! We have also explored the garden centre, numbers, money and been very busy list making.

This week we recalled all our camping and holiday experiences from the half term. We have enjoyed exploring ice again in the sunshine, finding our letters and sounds hidden, working out which will melt the quickest and how we can make it go back to a solid again.

We also have a butterfly which has hatched, It's a beautiful orange and yellow colour!